Albert Pionke

Albert D. Pionke is the William and Margaret Going Endowed Professor of English and Associate Dean of General Education and Academic Affairs at the University of Alabama. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2000). His academic journey includes roles as a College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Board Faculty Fellow (2016-2019) and Interim Chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance (2025-2026). His research focuses on 19th-century British literature, digital humanities, and critical theory.

Education:

• PhD, English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000
• MA, English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997
• BA, English, French, Humanities, Valparaiso University, 1996

Research Interests: Victorian literature, digital humanities, critical theory, bibliography, pedagogy, and cultural history. His work explores themes like middle-class identity, marginalia analysis, and the intersection of technology and literature.

Key Projects:

• Editor of Victorians Institute Journal and co-editor of Digital Studies in Language and Literature.
• Lead on the Mill Marginalia Online project digitizing John Stuart Mill’s annotations.

Awards:

• Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor Award (2024)
• Grants from Mellon Foundation, Delmas Foundation, and NEH.

Advising & Grants: Collaborates on digital humanities initiatives and has secured external grants for research projects. His work emphasizes collaborative, technology-driven scholarship.

Labs/Teams: Collaborates with the Alabama Digital Humanities Center on projects like digitizing Somerville College’s John Stuart Mill Library.